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“A second pizza entry before you even hit 50 entries? What kind of blog is this?”

Gin fizz!

Thanks for asking! I wasn’t expecting to write about our chickpea pizza anytime soon, as I thought the white pizza I posted about recently was enough, but then we had a housewarming party... and people started asking for the recipe! This in itself was pretty awesome, and Meghan had previously suggested we talk a little about what we served at the party, so we took a couple shots (ahem, photographs) to illustrate here.We purchased our house a year ago, so why did it take us almost that long to have a housewarming party? Mainly because we spent the entirety of last summer working on the landscaping, as there were trees, shrubs, weeds and gardens to wrangle, on top of filling the the house with artwork and vintage furniture, weddings to photograph, an album to write and record, and of course a blog to start (which you are reading now). It seemed pointless to host an open house in the middle of the winter, as half of the beauty of our home is outside, so we decided to wait until late spring, just shy of the 1-year mark, and we couldn’t have asked for a nicer day. The weather was fantastic, albeit slightly hot - which I’m going to assume was the reason we went through all of the beers in my (unofficial) beer fridge, and something like 7 gallons of gin fizz… We suggested 50s-style costumes to our guests, as our house was built in 1957, and if you haven’t noticed, we kind of have a thing for the time period. Check out the sweet dress Meghan wore; it was her grandmother’s in the 50s, and fits like a dream! No alterations needed, just genetics.

We spent some time planning out what to serve, as we needed enough food for over 50 people and didn’t want to run out (we did anyway). We settled on ranch cups with pretzels and cut veggies, sweet and hot pepper relish dip blended with Tofutti cream cheese, hummus, a tomato, feta and artichoke orzo salad, spinach Florentines, and the buffalo chickpea pizza to which this entry is devoted. I also couldn’t go without making an ungodly amount of chocolate chip and maple walnut cookies, on top of the vegan s’mores we roasted over a fire. You would think all of this, plus chips and salsa would have been enough, but almost everything was gone by the end of the night, and I kicked myself for not making another pizza or two. Definitely better than the alternative, though - waste not, want not!

Sweet & hot pepper relish dip w/ Tofutti cream cheese

It was so nice to see everyone enjoying our vegan goodies; Meghan and I believe it’s incredibly important to share the food we make with those around us and hopefully associate the term “vegan” with positive eating experiences, and if that was a goal of the party, it was a success. What we cook isn’t so alien, it’s just a few different ingredients and tons of flavor. Each exclamation of “This is vegan??” that came from half-full mouths was like music to our ears, and made our housewarming that much more satisfying. There were also endless hugs and conversation, photographs, music and singing, and both of us couldn’t have asked for more.

-Preheat oven to 400 F.-Combine the chickpeas, Sriracha and hot sauce in a bowl and set aside. -Follow dough recipe above and set aside to rise.-Cut the onion and sauté in a pan with the olive oil until transparent and lightly brown. -Roll out the dough to fit your baking stone/sheet; I usually make pizzas in my 9x12” stoneware baking sheet, as the sides help keep all of the toppings from rolling around. -Poke the dough all over with a fork and parbake for 5-10 min, or until the crust has risen a bit and is just beginning to turn golden.-Make the ranch sauce in a medium bowl. -When the crust is done, remove from the oven and spread the ranch evenly, leaving about ½” clean around the edge.-Spread the onions and then chickpeas, then dice the tomato and add. -Top with non-dairy cheese shreds, but use less than you would of traditional cheese; non-dairy cheese has a much stronger flavor, so a little goes a long way.-Bake for 15-20 min or until crust is crispy and golden, and the cheese has melted. -Remove from the oven and let cool for ~5 min before cutting.